Slamming it : 1 – The birth of a comic book.

Our first book has been spawned into the world, kicking and screaming as it goes. As with any birth, it’s creation was not without complications. Deadlines where missed and lots of swearing and screaming ensued…Mainly on my part as I paced endlessly around my cluttered bedroom which has become the makeshift base of operations for Slam. Cursing myself for being such a lackadaisical prat, I ranted and screamed at anybody that would listen. Normally, I would cry on the usually comical shoulder of our main writer, Ben Cook. But at this point in time I was left alone in the creative wilderness as Ben was swanking around Reading festival, dressed as a pilot swigging from a large bottle of value Gin. A happy bun-bun I was not.

Fortunately, twitter came to my aid. The #createcomics hashtag is filled with wonderful people who not only understood my woes, but suggested a myriad of printing companies that could do what I needed in my ever dwindling time frame. If you are even thinking of getting into comics, I very much suggest that you take a gander at the ever-scrolling collection of artists, writers, and other such creative bodies that inhabit that portion of the twitterverse. They listened to my woes and pointed me in the direction of www.Comicprintinguk.com where Rich, who I can only assume is some kind of wizard or other such magical creature trapped in human form, took me under his wing and informed me that my files where all in the wrong format and would look terrible if printed in their current form. Cue more screaming and swearing from me. But, with the patience of a saint, and some of his magical workings, managed to fix my wonky files, print the entire run, and ship them to me in under a week. All while remaining calm, professional and assuring me that everything would be fine. I highly suggest that you use comicprintinguk, or at least recommend them to your pals who may be more inclined to make use of their services, just as I am doing to you!

As a team, we have always felt the unending support of the Wales comic convention. Even when we had very little to show for our titles, they have let us flaunt our wares in their great halls. Their loving treatment of us has been the equivalent to that of the much larger celebrities they let us rub shoulders with, and for that we have always kind of seen their convention as our home away from home.

So, when it came to previewing our flagship title, “special powers” we chose the Wales comic con as it’s first outing. With only a small run to placate the needs of the masses, we hit the road hoping to make our fortunes, or at least make back the costs of printing.

The comic went down incredibly well, and promptly flew from the table as the convention crowd lurched by us. Veterans of the convention, and our fans alike where incredibly happy to see us, share stories and check out the book. Some showed off tattoos they had gotten of my artwork, which humbles me greatly. This blog’s own Hibiscus, and Rooney even ventured up to see us! Needless to say, we had a ton of fun and met some great people. Some of which we have drafted into the ranks of Slam, but more on that in a later blog.

So having given the world it’s first taste of “Special Powers” and what the Slam team is capable of, we returned home, tired, emotional, and hungover. But a little more confident in the fact that people are enjoying what we produce and that what we are working towards isn’t a massive waste of time. Which is a cyclopean burden removed from our collective shoulders. If you managed to pick up “Special Powers” or see us, please drop us a line! We absolutely love hearing from you!

Now, I sit here, back in my cluttered bedroom/office working out what path’s we need to be taking to make the dark foreboding future a little brighter for us to navigate swiftly. Projects are lurching forwards, and things are most certainly picking up. And all at slam hope you will join us along the way.